Welcome to Your (My) New Home

I moved. I did it. Right down the street, say, about five miles. But it's done. (Almost) officially. I have everything moved, you see, I just haven't paid the moola to break my lease. I won't have the money until Thursday.

I went to the office on two different occasions to confirm that, yes, I can show up the day I want to break my lease, and yes just pay the money, no questions asked. That better be the case or I don't know what happens then.

My apartment is empty. I cleaned it out yesterday. I was hoping to have some help, but my help came down with something. I ended up getting help where necessary, but the rest I did on my own. Man, I must've taken 100 trips up and down that staircase to my front door.

So how do I go from a one bedroom apartment to a...one bedroom bedroom? It's not easy. I thought, well, I moved into my apartment from a bedroom in an apartment in college. I couldn't have acquired that much more, could I? Well, I must've. I somehow managed to fit it all, though. I may have to put some boxes in the garage to make it a little more comfortable, but it'll work. I even took a trunk load to Goodwill.

The furniture I acquired in November was from my new landlords. Well, neither of us knew we'd be roomies and I wouldn't need the furniture nor have room for it a few months later. A waste in hindsight. Since I didn't have room for the sofa-sleeper and the dresser, nor help to move it, I had to get rid of it. I originally wanted to take it to Goodwill, but that was a more than one person job. A little birdie told me I should just craigslist it and it'd be gone by the end of the day.

Sure enough, within 30 minutes of listing it, I had a call for each. Within an hour, I had 3 calls for each, 1 for both. Within 2 hours, they were both gone.

The first buyers (although I was giving them away for free) were a Russian or Slovakian couple or something. The lady was as manly as her husband and had construction worker hands and a deep voice with a think accent kind of like Nikolai on 'Six Feet Under.' It was great.

The second buyer was this fella named Gao. He wanted the dresser. He came over with his wife. He came in first and looked at it and said he better make sure his wife wants it before he decides to take it. So she comes up. I was a little worried they wouldn't want my generous gift when they realized not all the drawers worked. Thankfully, they didn't try them out first...until we got the unit in the car and were like "there's no room for the drawers!" But of course, Gao is all "lets pull out the dresser and put the drawers back in, then it will all fit!" And I am all "oh I hope he doesn't want a refund!" But before they finished he thanked me and I went back inside and locked the door. He never came back. Success!

I don't know if you've ever used craigslist before, but it was my first time. Next time I think I'll hire a secretary to make all the arrangements for me. Once things got rolling I bet I got 10-12 calls in the matter of 60 minutes. It was nuts.

I've only spent one night in my new digs, so it's too early to say how it's going to be. I have a lock on my door, and bathroom to myself, and we're getting me a HD-DVR box this week, so I think that's a good start. Plus, oh yeah, I'm saving $800+ a month on rent. You just can't beat that. For now.

Pictures to come.